People's Democracy

(Weekly
Organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)

Vol.
XXIX

No. 49

December
04,
2005

12TH
SFI CONFERENCE

Unite
& Fight For Social Justice, Self-Reliance
& Rights

K
K Ragesh

CONCLUDING
at Hyderabad on November 21, the 12th all-India conference of the Students
Federation of India (SFI) urged upon the student community to unite and fight
for social justice, intellectual self-reliance and democratic rights. The
five-day conference had commenced on November 17 with a massive student rally in
the Nizam College grounds in Hyderabad.

CHALLENGES
FACING STUDENTS

During
its course, the conference discussed various challenges facing the student
community of our country today, which include recent attempts to facilitate the
participation and domination of private capital, both Indian and foreign, in the
field of education. The principles of social justice and equal opportunity in
education are also increasingly coming under attack, with the state power
seeking to throttle the students’ democratic voice. While the fundamental
rights --- the right to form associations and the freedom of speech and
expression --- are blatantly being denied, it is alarming that even the
judiciary, which is supposed to protect these rights, is itself playing a
proactive role in trampling them. It was in this context that the 12th SFI
conference urged upon the students and academia to unite and fight for social
justice, intellectual self-reliance and democratic rights.

The
UPA government at the centre has not altered, in any significant way, the
previous BJP-led NDA regime’s policy of commercialisation of education. This
is paving the way for the launch of a large number of private self-financing
institutions, confer upon them the deemed university status and also allow the
proliferation of self-financed courses in the existing aided and state run
higher educational institutions and universities. The UPA has taken some steps
to desaffronise education and free it from the communal venom, and introduced a
2 per cent cess for mid-day meals and primary education. These steps are
welcome. But they are by far too few to redress the existing levels of
communalisation and commercialisation in the field of education. The UPA has
failed to keep one of the most important promises made in the National Common
Minimum Programme (NCMP) that no one will get deprived of the right to education
due to economic reasons.

MISCARRIAGE

OF JUSTICE

Themis,
the Greek goddess of justice holding her scales and sword, is a familiar image.
Even though she wears a blindfold, she is not considered blind but is a symbol
of impartiality of the judicial system. But what is alarming is that when the
educational rights of a vast majority of students are being blatantly denied and
more and more students are committing suicide, the demigods of justice have
closed their eyes to the downtrodden sections while favouring the profit
mongers. After the verdict of the 7-member constitutional bench of the Supreme
Court of India in the P A Inamdar case, which prohibited reservations in private
higher educational institutions, almost all political parties took the stand
that a central legislation is necessary to establish social control over private
educational institutions. In fact, in the T M A Pai case verdict in October
2002, the apex court itself gave complete autonomy to private managements about
admitting students and deciding a fee structure.

And
now, in the Inamdar case, while asserting that reservations are not obligatory
for private institutions, the court allowed for 15 per cent reservations for the
rich on the pretext of an NRI quota. The judgement read: “…the state cannot
insist on private educational institutions which receive no aid from the state
to implement state’s policy on reservation for granting admission on lesser
percentage of marks, i e on any criterion except merit.” This in effect
sabotages the merit based admissions as well, and reserves all the seats for
private managements.

Today,
the situation is that thousands of students remain deprived of educational
opportunities while a large number of seats remain vacant for want of an
adequate number of “paying students.” This is what necessitates a central
legislation to ensure social justice and equal educational access irrespective
of paying capacity, in order to resolve the present crisis in the arena of
professional education. Despite many promises the government made in response to
massive agitations, its bias for the private education lobby is clear from the
delay in enacting such a law. After
a long wait, and in response to sustained pressure from the Left parties and
student organisations, the government promised to enact such a law. Yet, many of
the clauses in the draft legislation proposed by the centre are designed to
safeguard the commercial interests of private managements.

BACKDOOR
ENTRY TO PRIVATE VARSITIES

The
union ministry of human resource development (MHRD) and the University Grants
Commission (UGC) have taken a decision to accord recognition to private and
foreign universities. This decision was taken in the education ministers’
conference held at Bangalore in January 2005, under the pretext that the
government would exercise due “control” over such institutions. Backdoor
efforts are also on to enact a Private Universities Bill that was introduced in
Rajya Sabha long back. It is amply clear that allowing foreign and private
players in education will be a major step towards crass commercialisation of
education, leading to further elimination of the economically and socially
deprived sections from its ambit. The important role of higher education in
developing intellectual self-reliance and promoting critical thinking and
research in the interests of the common mass will be grossly undermined as
education will become a tool in the hands of corporate and imperialist
interests. Universities, which are the “dwelling places of ideas and
idealism,” will gradually get malformed into teaching shops.

The
erstwhile BJP-led government gave permission for the establishment of private
deemed universities by making amendments to the UGC Act. After this amendment,
about 170 private institutions were conferred the “deemed” university status
in a short span, and throughout the country they are running thousands of
“off-campus centres” that do not have recognition from the UGC. The UGC Act
clearly states that no deemed university can start an off-campus centre without
obtaining prior permission from the state governments and UGC. This backdoor
approach to grant the deemed university status was adopted because the Private
Universities Bill, introduced in Rajya Sabha in 1995, had to be put in cold
storage due to strong resistance from the Left and the academic world. But the
UPA government at the centre and many state governments have shown no interest
in curbing this gross violation of UGC norms. There is need to ensure that
illegal off-campus centres are closed down without delay and the amendments to
the UGC Act are reviewed, without compromising the interests of the students
already enrolled in these centres.

NATIONAL
INTEREST Vs GATS CONDITIONS

The
government has included the entire education sector in the offer list for
negotiations under GATS at the sixth WTO ministerial conference to be held in
Hong Kong from December 13 to 18. Article 15 of the GATS states that subsidies
provided to any service have a “distortive effect” and need to be withdrawn.
Thus, as per this agreement, the already declining subsidies for education will
be further axed. This would effectively mean an end to all sorts of scholarships
and freeships provided to our students. This provision, if implemented, will
virtually sound the death knell for social justice in Indian education system.

While
the government may exercise a certain degree of control on the liberalisation
process, any commitment to GATS can be withdrawn only by paying heavy
compensations to other WTO member countries. Thus such commitments have an
element of irreversibility in them. India is committed to award trade status to
educational services, as stipulated in the GATS agreement. This will mean a
further influx of foreign universities into India. Universities, which are
expected to be the hub of new and rational ideas as well as provide intellectual
leadership to the society, would not be able to serve this purpose.

RIGHTS
BEING CURTAILED

On
February 20, 2004, through its verdict in the Sojan Francis case, the Kerala
High Court banned political activities in campuses. It said: “It is open to
the educational institutions to prohibit political activities within the college
campuses and forbid students from organising or attending meetings other than
the official ones within the college campus.”

Last
year the association of private college principals brought before the High Court
the issue whether the by-laws of a university are binding on the colleges or
not. The court observed that managements could decide on the ways and means to
conduct student union elections, and that the methods prescribed by the
university need not be followed. Challenging it, the Kerala University syndicate
and Kerala University Students Union filed a review petition before the Supreme
Court. Then the latter made some damaging observations against student union
elections, castigating them with a general observation drawn from the experience
of the Delhi University student union elections, where money and muscle power
dominate. The court asked the governments to respond on the issue before
November 7.

At
the beginning of this academic year, the Rajasthan High Court also took up the
issue of student union elections suo moto
and opined that there is no need for them as they are corrupting students and
are a hindrance to academics. Later, the Jodhpur bench of the court, which
reviewed this judgement, opined that there is a need for student union
elections. A petition for a review of the Jodhpur bench judgement, questioning
its legality, is pending before a larger bench of the High Court.

Freedom
of speech and expression and freedom to form associations are fundamental rights
guaranteed under article 19 (1) (a) and 19 (1) (c) of our constitution. The constitution states: “…nothing in sub-clause (a) and (c)
of clause (1) shall affect the operation of any existing law, or prevent the
state from making any law, in so far as such laws impose reasonable restrictions
on the exercise of the right conferred by the said sub-clause in the interests
of the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the state, friendly
relations with foreign states, public order, decency or morality, or in relation
to contempt of court, defamation or incitement to an offence.”

MESSAGE
OF THECONFERENCE

Thus
the message of the SFI’s 12th all-India conference attains all the more
importance at a time when the courts, which are supposed to protect a
citizen’s fundamental rights from state intervention, are themselves seeking
to deny them.

The
11th (Kozhikode) conference of the SFI had resolved to intensify struggles
against anti-people policies of the government. Since then, student struggles
have intensified all over the country. In the course of these struggles,
students have faced brutal repression by state governments in Kerala, Karnataka,
Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana.
However, these very struggles forced the centre and many state governments to
talk of a “central legislation” to control fees and admissions in private
institutions. In this period, the national capital also witnessed massive
student protest in the form of marches to parliament and during the nationwide
education bandh.

These
struggles have added to the SFI’s credibility within the student community of
our country. Its influence has expanded and extended to many new areas, new
campuses and new sections of the student community. Our all-India membership,
which was less than 25 lakhs in the 1990s, has grown to 28,69,918 in 2001-02 to
29,23,317 in 2002-03 to 31,88,760 in 2003-04 to 34,67,660 in 2004-05, and is
poised to cross the 37 lakh mark in the current academic session. We have also
scored successes in many student union elections, as in Himachal
Pradesh University (Simla), universities in Kerala, Central University
(Hyderabad), Jodhpur University, Dr B R Ambedkar Marathwada University (Aurangabad),
Sambalpur University (Berhampur, Orissa), Agartala University and the
universities in West Bengal. We have won in numerous colleges in Himachal
Pradesh, in many new colleges in Rajasthan and some colleges in Uttaranchal,
Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Tamilnadu, Assam and one college in Sikkim. We continue to
hold our ground in some of the colleges in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. In
West Bengal, we have surpassed all our previous successes and emerged victorious
in the highest ever number of colleges so far.

The
SFI conference deliberated upon the environment in our country today and the
need to further intensify struggles --- not merely to resist the anti-student
moves in the field of education but also to make positive gains for the student
community. As our political organisational report points out, this is an
opportune time to build and further expand our organisation. “The opportunity
gained as a result of our valiant struggles in the recent past should not be
lost. The favourable political climate has to be utilised to the hilt. We cannot
be complacent. We have to brace ourselves to face all the eventualities that
unfold before us in the coming days.” This is possible only by formulating
correct policies, building up a dynamic and sustained movement, and ensuring
broad student unity against all the anti-student and anti-people policies. It is
high time to initiate such efforts based on a broad alliance of students and
aimed at translating the present favourable political atmosphere into advances
for the student community.